Tell Me About Your Mother

Tell Me About Your Mother offers an unscripted look at the genius and controversy of Dave Chappelle’s latest comedy special now streaming on Netflix.  Our reactions to and perception of Dave Chapelle’s message lead us to contemplate whether we can help others change and grow, particularly people within our personal lives, as well as:

• How social media influences our thoughts;
• Going Gault within the counseling profession;
• Consequences of the decisions made by an elite population;
• Vicarious trauma’s effect on our relationships and in parenting;
• Anger and criticism as a reflection of internalized, unresolved attachment wounds;
• Therapeutic confrontation;
• Setting boundaries with others as reaction formation to traumatic experiences; and
• Avoidance of emotional experiences in order not to recreate parental dynamics.

Please join us weekly as Tell Me About Your Mother discusses topics relevant to pursuing excellence in psychotherapy.  Melissa Martin, Eli Branscombe, and Evan Miller are three licensed psychotherapists who have come together for peer supervision and in doing so, created Tell Me About Your Mother so that we may share our passion for psychotherapy with our fellow healers.

Melissa is excited to announce a partnership with maude, a sexual health, modern intimacy company solely focused on sexual wellness for all people.  Check out getmaude.com and receive a discount at checkout with the promo code MELISSA5.

Tell Me About Your Mother is seeking sponsorship!  If you’d like to connect with us, please send an email to [email protected].

WARNING -- Discussion of sex practices ahead!  Tell Me About Your Mother ventures into the world of sex education and sexual health in this unscripted expression of how psychotherapists broach the subject of sexuality with our clients, ourselves, as well as with colleagues.  Speaking about sexuality also generated discussions related to:

• What is anxiety really about?
• How do we help our clients dissect their experiences with anxiety?
• Romantic infatuation as evidence of attachment trauma;
• What does it mean to like and know someone?
• Paradox of wanting interpersonal connection while fearing emotional intimacy;
• Interactions with others through the lens of the Four Agreements;
• Madonna-Whore complex;
• Partnering with physicians to treat mental health.

Please join us weekly as Tell Me About Your Mother discusses topics relevant to pursuing excellence in psychotherapy.  Melissa Martin, Eli Branscombe, and Evan Miller are three licensed psychotherapists who have come together for peer supervision and in doing so, created Tell Me About Your Mother so that we may share our passion for psychotherapy with our fellow healers.

Melissa is excited to announce a partnership with maude, a sexual health, modern intimacy company solely focused on sexual wellness for all people.  Check out getmaude.com and receive a discount at checkout with the promo code MELISSA5.

Tell Me About Your Mother is seeking sponsorship!  If you’d like to connect with us, please send an email to [email protected].

Securely fasten your headphones, dear listeners, as we drop a few F bombs while contemplating our own cultural indoctrination and the meaning behind clients’ “testing behaviors.”  In this episode, Eli, Evan, and Melissa explore many topics related to racial and cultural identity development including:

• What is “queer”?
• Assignment: Watch the newest Dave Chapelle comedy special on Netflix
• Fear of speaking one’s mind 
• Multicultural development while recognizing one’s privilege
• Relationship between shame and racial identity development
• Managing biases while maintaining presence
• Developing awareness of our own cultural indoctrination
• Imperative of self-reflection in racial identity development
• Cultural differences in perception of politeness
• Clients’ testing boundaries to determine whether the counselor is “safe”
• Reframing clients’ “testing behaviors” as a trust-building process -- even if it’s about you, it’s not
• When clients direct rage at clinician
• Rage and shame as avoidance
• Manners/politeness as avoidance of truth
• Hoarding familial beliefs

Please join us weekly as Tell Me About Your Mother discusses topics relevant to pursuing excellence in psychotherapy.  Melissa Martin, Eli Branscombe, and Evan Miller are three licensed psychotherapists who have come together for peer supervision and in doing so, created Tell Me About Your Mother so that we can share our passion for psychotherapy with our fellow healers.

Tell Me About Your Mother is seeking sponsorship!  If you’d like to connect with us, please send an email to [email protected].

What do you get when you cross maladaptive family dynamics with a resilient spirit and an intellectually curious mind? Evan and Eli share how their family dynamics have shaped their pursuit of excellence in psychotherapy as well as contributed to their own personal growth.  Sit a spell and laugh with us as we contemplate:

• Familial social contracts
• Fears which arise in us while listening to clients’ narratives
• Importance of pursuing one’s passion
• Difference between purpose and meaning
• Enmeshment to the point of self-sacrifice
• How becoming healthier challenges family dynamics
• Assignment: Watch “Pray Away” 
• Evoking shame to control/correct family members
• Paradox of being both emotionally obtuse and emotionally attuned

Please join us weekly as Tell Me About Your Mother discusses topics relevant to pursuing excellence in psychotherapy.  Melissa Martin, Eli Branscombe, and Evan Miller are three licensed psychotherapists who have come together for peer supervision and in doing so, created Tell Me About Your Mother so that we can share our passion for psychotherapy with our fellow healers.

Tell Me About Your Mother is seeking sponsorship!  If you’d like to connect with us, please send an email to [email protected].

How do our client’s cultural beliefs and experiences inform our sessions?  Are we able to hold space for beliefs which do not reflect our own? In this episode, Eli, Melissa, and Evan explore what we love about psychotherapy.  In answering this question, we contemplate the role our clients’ stories and dare we say it, delusions, play in their lives and within the counseling process.  Additionally, Evan shares his experiences with emotional vulnerability in group therapy.

Topics explored in this episode include:

• Beauty of clients’ being the authors of their lives
• Working with delusion as an affect-regulating resource
• Analyzing delusions within the psychodynamic process
• Was Melissa kidnapped by aliens?
• Trusting client’s authenticity
• Picking up on client’s cues while staying present during the counseling process
• Suggestions for allowing group process to occur
• Dreams as a reflection of ourselves
• Housing within clinically-directed treatment
• Mushing sled dogs as a metaphor for group therapy
• Would you consume equine ejaculate rather than express emotional vulnerability in group therapy?
• Racial bias in assessing physical pain and prescribing opiates
• How a lack of counselor self-awareness damages clients

Please join us weekly as Tell Me About Your Mother discusses topics relevant to pursuing excellence in psychotherapy.  Melissa Martin, Eli Branscombe, and Evan Miller are three licensed psychotherapists who have come together for peer supervision and in doing so, created Tell Me About Your Mother so that we can share our passion for psychotherapy with our fellow healers.

Tell Me About Your Mother is seeking sponsorship!  If you’d like to connect with us, please send an email to [email protected].

Join us as Tell Me About Your Mother explores issues impacting the quality of substance use treatment.  Evan, Eli, and Melissa share their insights into how they experienced working as clinicians in substance use treatment and offer solutions for improving the industry.

Topics explored in this episode include:

Observations of group therapy vs. group facilitation

• Value of therapeutic relationships
• Ethical counseling in substance use treatment
• What is the product substance use treatment sells?
• Effective clinical leadership in substance use treatment
• Qualities of effective supervision in community mental health and substance use treatment
• Value of constant personal growth for counselors

Who makes up the cast of Tell Me About Your Mother?  Melissa Martin, Eli Branscombe, and Evan Miller are three licensed psychotherapists who have come together for peer supervision and in doing so, created Tell Me About Your Mother so that we can share our passion for excellence in psychotherapy with our fellow healers.

Evan, Eli, and Melissa welcome you to their inaugural podcast of Tell Me About Your Mother.  In this episode, we explore how our quest for excellence in psychotherapy led us to create this podcast.  Evan shares how his childhood fascination with the movie Titanic relates to his family dynamics and thus influenced his career in addiction and mental health treatment.  Please join us each week as we delve into issues related to practicing excellence in psychotherapy in an authentic, humorous manner.  

Who are Evan Miller, Eli Branscombe, and Melissa Martin?  We are three licensed psychotherapists who have come together for peer supervision and in doing so, created Tell Me About Your Mother so that we can share our passion for excellence in psychotherapy with our fellow healers.

Tell Me About Your Mother is seeking sponsorship!  If you’d like to connect with us, please send an email to [email protected].